The invention relates to high-power semiconductive devices in which a conductive liquid is disposed between the opposed terminal regions of the active semiconductive element and the current supply and receiving terminals of the device.
In a typical known device of this type, the active semiconductive portion is cooled by forced recirculation of the conductive liquid within the device. Unfortunately, in addition to being relatively complicated and expensive, such design requires the use of a relatively large amount of the conductive liquid. Additionally, the technique of employing forced recirculation of the liquid conductor is less efficient than that of directly conductively contacting the terminal regions of the semiconductive element with separate heat-conductive tubes. Such latter construction, in turn, has also been found disadvantageous in the prior art, irrespective of whether the conductive contact is established by pressure or by heating (e.g. soldering or brazing). For example, the use of pressure to engage the heat-conductive tube and the semi conductive element has led to problems because of their different coefficients of thermal expansion, while the use of soldering or brazing has been found to set up stresses which cause fractures of the brittle silicon plate.